INVERT'ed! What's your favorite non-fishy critters?

What's your favorite type of invert? (not coral)

  • Anemones

    Votes: 221 29.3%
  • Crabs

    Votes: 65 8.6%
  • Fan Worms

    Votes: 17 2.3%
  • Sea Slugs

    Votes: 11 1.5%
  • Starfish

    Votes: 25 3.3%
  • Shrimp

    Votes: 207 27.5%
  • Snails

    Votes: 46 6.1%
  • Clams

    Votes: 123 16.3%
  • Other? Please say what in the thread!

    Votes: 38 5.0%

  • Total voters
    753

revhtree

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Yes I know coral is technically an invert but let's leave them out of this discussion!

One of the coolest aspects to this hobby has to be those little critters we call marine inverts! Whether it be a fancy looking shrimp, a colorful starfish inching his way across the glass or an elegant fan worm dancing about in the water column, marine inverts can make for interesting additions to a saltwater reef aquarium. So let's talk about them today!

1. What is your MOST FAVORITE marine invert and why?

2. What invert would you like to add to your tank in the future?


Harlequin Shrimp perched on a coral image via @TUSI
image0020.jpg
 
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revhtree

revhtree

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I have to go with anemones myself. Starfish comes next!
 

stephnjeph

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Shrimp have alot of personality and I enjoy watching them, but I am always drawn to watching my spotted porcelain crabs. I can watch them for hours. I am not sure what it is about them, but I seem to be hypnotized by them. All hail hypno-crab
 

Goaway

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1. What is your MOST FAVORITE marine invert and why?
I picked other. I have no favorite. Or, I would focus around that creature. However, bubble tip anemone may become a favorite. On that note, I enjoy all the inverts in my system as I get to see them. I personally adore tunicates. Nothing like watching a set of lungs in the aquarium.

2. What invert would you like to add to your tank in the future?

I wish I could add more shrimp, but I never know if they would get eaten. My malanuras wrasse loves pods, so what would he do to an anemone shrimp? The moment I put something in my tank he is up about investigating to see if it's food.

3. Current invert additions.

I just recently added a BTA, we shall see how well this goes.
 

Tundra Cuttle

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I love shrimp for beauty but I love snails for their work. They have brought my aquarium to the next level of clean so I have to go with snails on this one. I think my favorite are banded Trochus, I have one that is just a trooper while I have lost so many astrea for seemingly no reason.
 

mrlavalamp

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I have a Coral Banded Shrimp that we call Lazarus.

Within a couple days of putting him in the tank, he molted, then disappeared. I didn't find the molt until it was already in pieces and stuck to the power-heads so I thought the worst.

About a week later, the kids started shouting from the living room about something attacking the fish. It was Lazarus, back from the dead!

He was hanging on the underside of a shelf and any fish that got close he would lunge at and raises his claws up like he was shaking a fist at kids playing on his lawn.

He still does this almost daily.
 

Timfish

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Cryptic Sponges, essential for reef ecosystems.



Element cycling on tropical coral reefs.
This is Jasper de Geoij's ground breaking research on reef sponges. (The introduction is in Dutch but the content is in English.)

Sponge symbionts and the marine P cycle

Phosphorus sequestration in the form of polyphosphate by microbial symbionts in marine sponges

Differential recycling of coral and algal dissolved organic matter via the sponge loop.
Sponges treat DOC from algae differently than DOC from corals

Surviving in a Marine Desert The Sponge Loop Retains Resources Within Coral Reefs
Dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen are quickly processed by sponges and released back into the reef food web in hours as carbon and nitrogen rich detritus.

Natural Diet of Coral-Excavating Sponges Consists Mainly of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC)

The Role of Marine Sponges in Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles of COral Reefs and Nearshore Environments.
 

Big C

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Depends on what favorite is:

Usefulness - Love hate relationship with my urchins. Do an awesome job cleaning just about everything off the rocks. Absolutely hate how they try to carry anything that isn’t glued down (or even glued down at times)

Fun to watch - Family loves to watch the cleaner ship away with the current, try to swim around during feeding and cleaning other fish.

Would include clams but have a heck of a time with them.

Rainbow BTAs and rock flower brighten up the tank…
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 62 36.3%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 59 34.5%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 24 14.0%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 26 15.2%
  • Other.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
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